Singer, songwriter, chef – Nataal meets the polymath to discuss her bold third album

First things first – food! Please tell us about Dee’s Table.
I loved cooking and hosting dinner parties so three years ago I came up with the idea of creating a supper club so I could share my dishes. The food is inspired by my heritage and what I grew up eating but through a modern fusion lens.

Your lockdown home cooking must have been next level, then.
During these times I’ve been sharing a lot of home friendly recipes. The dishes I serve at Dee’s Table are more elaborate and experimental so I’ve adapted these into more relatable ones people can try at home.

What’s been popular?
When everyone was doing banana bread, I made banana bread chocolate chip cookies with nutmeg and cardamom to add some warmth. I’m also working on a baked mac & cheese and my mum sent me some ackee because I was craving food from home.

Where is home now?
I moved to Margate from London a year and a half ago. As a musician you live at a fast pace with highs and lows and being on the road, so I appreciate the slower pace here. The creative community is still growing so I like being part of that gentle wave.

How does it compare to your upbringing?
I grew up in Spanish Town [Jamaica] then moved to Stratford [UK] aged 10. I have a lot of fond memories of living in Jamaica and the main thing was the attachment to nature. Most people had fresh produce growing in their back gardens. My aunt had the best avocado tree. So it was a culture shock the way imported food is exoticised in London. I’m interested in getting back to eating local, seasonal produce. They call Kent the Garden of England so it’s a good place to be for that.

When did you first discover your love of music?
My dad was a musician who always existed in musical forms that weren’t expected so that’s where I get my genre-less approach from. He played in a 90s alternative band called Voodoo Culture, which was quite a scandalous name at that time. Seeing him go for his dreams definitely made it seem realistic for me to go for it too when I was older.

How did you develop your own musical path?
I got a guitar aged 12 and started experimenting. Then when I was 18, I wrote some songs that shifted something in me - one of them became my first single ‘Gone’, which I performed it on Later… with Jools Holland [BBC Two, 2013]. At that point I began to understand myself as an artist and went on to get signed while at university. It’s funny because I had that same feeling again when making ‘To The Brink’. I intuitively knew it was the start of something new.

What can you tell us about making the new album?
It was a two-year process, which meant I could write songs, have time away from them, and then come back to the music. I met Alex [Robertshaw of Everything Everything] three years ago and when we got into the studio we had a natural chemistry. As a producer he helped me to not censor myself and allow the songs to become what they were meant to be, whether that was heavy, or clean, or emotional.

Sonically the album is faster than my previous music. I wanted that feeling of your heart beating really fast, which makes the songs more visceral. My last album was more ethereal and about personal growth but this one is me tackling my dread of what’s happening in the world. There’s this fear and anxiety for the future, this sense of being on the edge.

How did ‘Cascades’ take shape?
‘Cascades’ is about feeling like you can’t initiate any good thoughts for yourself because the of the continuous chaos and the fact that there’s nothing to feel positive about. I’m re-evaluating myself and my value to society. The song sounds upbeat – almost glittery - but the lyrics are very emo. The album is full of confident sounding songs with lyrics that are revealing, which is something that’s very intentional.

Tne new single is ‘Fake Sorry’ takes no prisoners either.
It’s more pop, which is a sound I’ve never really gone for before. It’s about how exhausting it is to shape myself to seem less abrasive as a woman in order to appear more approachable. I’ve been in a lot of industry scenarios where I felt like I had to tone down my voice. This song is unapologetic, it’s immediate, it’s sassy, it’s about it being okay to say no. I hope people connect to it.

Even though ‘Modern Dread’ was finished last year, it is very much a record for now in light of Covid-19 and Black Lives Matter protests.
Two years from now ‘Modern Dread’ will still be relevant. In the age of excessive information and technology acceleration, we don’t know what is going to happen next. You can live stream a protest. You have tragic events like the Grenfell Tower fire being trivialised. People are taking advantage of outrage culture and The Daily Mail stoke the flames. But I’m choosing not to be in an angry place and would rather see where an uplifting energy can navigate us to.

It’s a power to use your position to create social change. The Stormzys and Michaela Coels of this world are going to change the fabric of what we hear and see and that’s just incredible. It inspires me to make something that represents myself and not what the music industry might view as me. Blackness in music is so vast so we can define for ourselves what that can be.

Your visual expressions for the album are stunning.
How this music is packaged with the visuals was so important so I picked collaborators who I feel validated by and who could elevate the themes. I had lots of fun on set with amazing directors [Nadira Amrani, Samuel Douek, Mahaneela] and wearing some insane fashion. In ‘To The Brink’ I’m in this clinical, modern space watching breaking news of an oil spill on TV. In ‘Cascades’ we created this warped, surreal world, which is the reality I feel we’re in right now. And ‘Fake Sorry’ was made in my house during lockdown!

What are your hopes for the rest of 2020?
If we can do shows again soon, that’s the net phase. When I’m listening to the record, I am imagining what the stage looks like and what the live experience will be. I need to rethink everything in terms of arrangements so I am doing all that geeky research now. I’ve worked so hard and so long on this record; I’ve learnt so much about electronic music production and how to be authentic to myself in all aspects, so I’m just excited for people to hear it.